


Suspended

by happyaspie



Series: Tony Stark is a Good Mentor [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Bullying, Good Peter, High School Drama, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark is a Good Mentor, mutual respect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-12
Packaged: 2020-05-16 06:43:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19312750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happyaspie/pseuds/happyaspie
Summary: Peter gets into an argument at school that goes just a touch too far.  When they can't get ahold of Aunt May, Peter is surprised to find out that Tony is on his contacts list and is worried that his mentor will be upset about it.  Instead, he finds out that Tony is exactly who he needed to back him up.





	Suspended

At school, Peter wasn't known to be athletic, popular or influential and he definitely wasn't known to be heroic.  No one knew that there was more to Peter Parker than being an awkward yet extremely intelligent teenager.  He had one best friend but got along with nearly everyone.  Teachers liked his enthusiasm and he was proud to be a part of the decathlon team.  All in all, he was nothing more than another face in the crowd.

 

Outside of school was a completely different story.  Outside of school, he was Spider-man.  If his classmates knew that, he would probably end up being the most popular kid on campus, but that's not what he wanted.  Besides, coming right out and telling the whole school that's he was actually a teenaged vigilante would have probably gone over about as well as telling them that he had a Stark Internship.  As in, no one would believe him.  He probably could have proven that he did, in fact, know Mr. Stark but he didn't feel the need to.  The same way he didn't go out as Spider-man to get attention, he didn't do the internship for bragging rights.  That's not how he worked. Peter was humble and down to Earth which is why really wanted to keep his identity under wraps.

 

That meant that at school he had to play his part.  Even when he was being teased and taunted he had to sit back and take it.  He couldn't exactly get in a fight without potentially outing himself.  It wouldn't make sense for a boy like him to be able to take down a bully with a single punch.  Even if he pulled his punches, it was a risk.  His reflexes alone would be something to questions.  As such, he tried to use his wit.  Sure, being mouthy could get him into trouble but it didn't jeopardize his ability to keep his alter-ego a secret.  

 

Another thing Peter was, was observant.  As such, he knew who the real bullies were.  Not the mean kid, who would knock a book out of your hands to get a laugh.  Not the rude kid, who didn't know when to shut their mouth.  The actual bullies who held power over others using threats of violence and manipulation. those were the ones he tended to get into arguments with.  The thing was, he knew when to walk away.  It never escalated past a few snappy quips and a handful of half-hearted insults.  Just enough to get their attention, let them know someone was on to them and not afraid to say something.

 

He rarely got in trouble for the quick verbal disputes.  A brief reprimanding from a teacher who might have overheard or the occasional stint in detention but nothing serious.  He was a good student, he didn't regularly cause problems and his intellect was an asset to the school.  So, when he did get into actual trouble one day it took him slightly by surprise.  Usually, they heard him out.  This time they didn't and that's how he ended up sitting on a bench outside of the principal's office, anxiously waiting to get picked up.  

 

The worst part had been that they couldn't get ahold of May.  They'd tried her office number and her cell number several times before Peter remembered that she was going to be in conferences all day.  When they said they would try the secondary contact he'd looked at them in confusion.  He hadn't even known that  _there was_ a second contact. It was an electronic form, he'd never actually seen it but he hoped it wasn't one of his aunt's co-workers.  It would be humiliating to be picked up from the principal's office by one of May's friends.  When they came to him to double check the name they'd found he realized that it was far, far worse.

 

They were going to call Tony.  He wondered if the man would answer.  Part of him hoped that he wouldn't but luck was not his friend that day.  Apparently, the man had picked up and was now on his way to the school.  That's when they'd escorted to a bench just outside the office.  It was going to take the man a little while to get there.  He'd been told to use that time to _think about his choices_ but he already had and he knew he was in the right the whole time. Well, most of the time.  He shouldn't have raised his voice.  He'd lost control of his temper but _he didn't hit him._

 

He sat there and waited in silence, the comings and goings of the staff and students around him were like ghost brushing past.  They were there but he couldn't focus enough to know who they were or where they were going.  Everything was a blur, the voices all blended together in a conglomeration of mumbling and he stared straight ahead, focusing on the clock on the wall.  

 

He'd been so distracted by his own swirling emotions that he didn't hear Tony walk in.  Not the commotion in the office, nor the footsteps as he approached. He didn't react at all until the man spoke and even then he didn't look his way.  He didn't want to see the anger or disappointment that was probably overtaking his mentor's features.  

 

"Hey, Kid.", Tony said softly as he took a seat on the bench beside Peter.  When the boy didn't answer he sighed and tried again.  "What am I doing here, Pete?  What happened?"

 

Peter finally looked towards his mentor, tears pearling in the corners of his eyes.  He tried to blink them back but all that seemed to do was send them cascading down his cheeks. "They didn't tell you?", he asked hesitantly as he tried to casually wipe away the tears.

 

Scrunching up his brow in concern, Tony placed a hand on Peter's knee.  "Well, yeah, they did but I was sort of interested in your side of the story.  You see, the kid I know doesn't get into fights at school, like that.", he said quietly as if speaking any louder would cause the boy beside him to fall into pieces.

 

Taking a deep shaky breath, Peter replied, though he completely ignored the question.  The man had better, more important things to do than to deal with his problems at school. "I'm sorry you had to come, Mr. Stark.  I didn't even know May added your name.  I can have her take it off."

 

"I asked her to add me.  In case I needed your assistance in some sort of emergency.  Though, to be fair I didn't think it through enough to realize that it would go both ways.", Tony said with a smile as he gave the kid's knee a firm squeeze.  "I don't mind, though.  Now, tell me what happened?"

 

Looking away from the man again, Peter tried to come up with the right words but all that came out was, "They didn't believe me, Mr. Stark."  Before Tony had a chance to question it, the principal was exciting the office and holding his hand out to Tony.

 

"Mr. Stark, I'm glad you were able to make it, though I must say I was a bit surprised.", the principal said with a smile as he firmly shook Tony's hand.  It was clear that he was impressed to be in the man's presence.  

 

"Surprised?  Surprised how?", Tony asked immediately letting go of the other man's hand.  He'd gotten off of the phone with him an hour ago.  He couldn't fathom what he had to be surprised about but he went ahead and assumed that he wouldn't like it.

 

The principal turned slightly sheepish before answering.  "Well, that you were on his contacts list at all, really.  He'd said he had an internship with you but, to be honest I was never quite sure if it was true or not--"

 

Tony's posture rapidly changed from business casual to somewhat defensive as he measured the other man up.  "--I don't really like what you're implying.  Kid's not a liar.", he stated firmly while glancing towards Peter.

 

Not knowing how to react to that, the other man fumbled, leading both Tony and Peter into his office, closing the door behind them.  "I didn't mean it that way... I, let's just get to the point, shall we?"

 

"Good idea.", Tony sarcastically drawled, taking a seat in front of the desk.  He hadn't been in that position in years.  He'd sat in front of a desk very much like this one many times in the past.  It felt odd not being the one in trouble for once.

 

Getting straight to the point, the principal pulled out a sheet of paper and began to speak.  "You see, Mr. Parker got into a verbal altercation with one of our other students."

 

"Verbal altercation.", Tony clarified as he crossed one leg over the other and schooled his features back to his more business-like state.  While he knew Peter had a mouth on him, he'd never known him to go so far as to argue in earnest.  He wasn't generally disrespectful and even angry, his tone stayed fairly level, even as his vigilante self.  He was having trouble picturing a situation where Peter would get into anything you could call an altercation.

 

"Yes, sir.  A teacher managed to jump in before it became physical but threats were being issued.  We have a strict policy on such behavior.", the principal stated seriously, shuffling the papers he held in his hands.  It almost seemed to be a nervous action, like Tony being there at all had him somewhat out of sorts.

 

Looking strictly into the other man's eyes, Tony sat up as straight as possible and squinted.  "You're trying to tell me that this kid...", he said pointing to Peter who was in the chair beside him, "...was making threats towards another one of your students?"

 

Looking back and forth between Tony and Peter, the other man faltered. It was as if he was trying to sort out the level of their association. The man before him seemed awfully invested in the kid to be nothing more than a mentor.  "We had several witnesses--"

 

"--and they said that he made physical threats?", Tony uttered almost threateningly.  

 

"Not exactly, no, but you see the other student involved has a bit of a history with getting into fights.  My understanding is that he was the one making the threats but Mr. Parker was present and clearly invested in the argument.", the man behind the desk said, no longer making eye contact with Tony, choosing to solely focus on his paperwork.

 

"I'm sorry.  I'm gonna need a bit more than that.  Because what I'm hearing is that he was the one being threatened and now he's getting in trouble for it.  That doesn't sound right.", Tony scoffed in disbelief.  

 

"On most occasions, I would tend to agree with you, but in this situation, Peter started it.", The principal stated in near frustration this time.  He wasn't used to having to defend the school's actions.  Typically a parent came in, apologized and left with their kid in tow.  

 

Tony hadn't expected to hear that.  He paused and looked towards Peter who was sitting, quietly beside him staring at the floor.  "Pete?", he asked softly.   "Want to explain to me what happened?"

 

It took several minutes for Peter to start to talk and during those minutes Tony had to shush the principal several times.  He refused to go any further in that conversation without hearing Peter's side of the story because there had to be more to it.   "Well, You see...", Peter stuttered out before stopping and peering up at the principal as if he were waiting to be cut off.

 

Reaching over to place his hand on top of Peter's, Tony took a second to glare at the other man, daring him to say anything else.  "Go on, Pete.  Look at me.  You're talking to me."

 

"I wasn't trying to start an argument like that, Mr. Stark.  I was trying to stop him from hurting someone else--", Peter spoke quietly before being interrupted by a clearly annoyed principal.  

 

"--Mr. Parker, while your my actions come off as noble to you, it's not really your place to.--"

 

"--Let him speak!", Tony interjected with venom before softening his tone again to address Peter. "What do you mean, Kid?"

 

Swallowing and cutting his eyes towards his mentor, Peter went on.  Now that he had someone actually listening to him he was nervous to get the words out.  "He's, he's a bully sir.  He knows exactly what to say to get people in trouble.  He's sneaky and manipulative.  He sends notes or whispers things in their ear.  I, I heard him try to start something and it's not the first time.  He does it so often that I couldn't let him keep doing it so I tried to step in.  It wasn't supposed to go that far.  I just wanted him to leave everyone alone.  I thought by calling him out on it he'd back down.  Then when I was going to walk away, that's when he started making threats.  I, I argued back.  When the teacher came and broke it up, she thought that we were about to fight but I was never going to hit him, sir.  I was trying to help."

 

After he was sure that Peter had nothing more to say, Tony looked briefly towards the administrator who looked like he was itching to say something else.  "..and you told them that right?  When you first got pulled back here?", 

 

Answering that question with the principal right there made Peter feel uneasy but when Tony squeezed his hand he took a deep breath and replied.  "Sort of.  I was asked some yes or no questions but I never really got to say anything else.  I tried.  They didn't believe me."

 

The principal seemingly unable to hold his tongue any longer, spoke before Tony had the chance to get in another word. "Mr. Parker if what you're saying is true then why has it never been brought to my attention before?"

 

Peter hung his head and smiled shyly. "Tattling isn't exactly the best way to keep yourself out of trouble..."

 

"Heated arguments aren't either, Mr. Parker.", the other man expressed with gravity.  

 

While he didn't quite feel confident he did feel like he hadn't really done anything seriously wrong.  He knew he shouldn't have yelled and that he should have walked away despite the other boy's threats but he also felt like he was doing it for all the right reasons.  "I thought that if I stood up to him and pointed out that I knew what he was doing, that maybe he would leave everyone alone for a while.  That's worked before.  I didn't mean for it to get so out of control.  I'm sorry.", he said honestly, still staring at the floor.

 

Hearing those words the man behind the desk seemed to be mulling it all over. After a minute or two of silence, he spoke up, tapping his pen in the desk.   "Alright Peter here's the deal, I'll continue to look into this but you have to understand that if no one else can back up your claims then there's nothing we can do.  It may be in your best interest to stay away from him completely."

 

This time, Peter did raise his eyes.  He looked at the other man directly in the eyes and took a deep breath.  "I can't promise you that, sir.  I'm not a big fan of bullies and I'm not going to sit back and watch him torment my friends.", Peter said while Tony looked on with pride.

 

Running his hands down his face and sighing, the principal started making notes on the forms in front of him.  "For you your sake Peter, I hope we can get to the bottom of this.  Write down some names for me?", he asked passing a pen and note pad over the desk towards Peter.

 

Hesitating at first, Peter accepted the pen and paper.  "Okay, I guess.  Sure.", he said before taking a few moments to carefully select some names.  He chose three and the principal seemed satisfied so he handed the paper back to the man.  

 

After a few more minutes of contemplation, the administrator sighed. "For your actions today, you'll be suspended for two days.  Today can count as the first one.  We'll see you back here on Friday.", he said.  Then as he finished up he rose from his seat, Tony and Peter following, suit.  "Thank you for coming Mr. Stark.", the man said as they walked through the door.   

 

He'd held out a hand but Tony didn't accept it. "I wish I could say that the pleasure was mine but frankly I'm a little put off by your attitude towards my kid.  First, you tell me that you thought he was a liar and then I find out you couldn't even be bothered to listen to his side of the story until I got here."

 

Not knowing what else to say the other man attempted a fumbled apology of sorts.  "That was never my intention.  It won't happen again, sir."

 

Narrowing his eyes, Tony looked the man over.  "I'm counting on it.", he finally said before placing a hand on Peter' shoulder to guide him out of the office and into the parking lot.

 

As they got into the car, Tony remained quiet, trying to give Peter some space. He's assumed he would want some time to himself and didn't realize that that the silence would cause the boy to become anxious.  "Are, are you mad at me, Mr. Stark?"

 

Tony smiled and looked beside him.  "Nope.  I'm pretty proud of you, actually.", he said honestly.  While the kid had managed to get himself into trouble he hadn't thrown any punches and his intentions had been solidly grounded.  He'd been right, Peter would never fight for the sake of fighting.

 

Still feeling bad about the entire situation, Peter dropped his gaze to his backpack that was sitting by his feet.  "... but I screwed up and got in trouble then you can to come all the way to my school--"

 

"--Actually that was convenient timing.", Tony said with a small laugh.   "Got me out of an extremely boring meeting.  I should probably _thank you._ "

 

Peter nodded his head and continuing to look from the floor to the window, not saying anything else for several minutes.  "This isn't the way to my apartment, Mr. Stark.  You should have turned right back there...", he said when the man seemingly made a wrong turn.  It wouldn't have been surprising, Tony rarely drove him home.  Happy would drive him when he didn't web himself back.

 

Rolling his eyes, Tony reached over and patted the boy on the leg.  "I know how to get to your apartment, kid.  We're going to lunch and then I'm taking you back with me.  I'll get Happy to drive you home this evening."

 

"Why?  Aren't I supposed to be in trouble, Mr. Stark?", Peter asked in confusion.  He'd sort of assumed his mentor would need to get back to whatever super important things he was doing before having to come to his school.

 

Tony raised an eyebrow at the boy and laughed.  "Do you think you should be in trouble?"

 

"Well, sort of.  I shouldn't have yelled back, sir.  I should have walked away like I was going to.", Peter replied after some careful thought. 

 

"That's what you got suspended for.  If May wants to add to that then that's on her but I stand by what I said before.  I'm proud of your intentions, I know you would never start a fight without cause.  I bet May knows that too.", Tony came back with a smile.  

 

Being happy to hear the man wasn't mad at him didn't take away the guilt of knowing he'd interrupted his entire day.  "Yeah.  I still feel bad though, Mr. Stark.  You shouldn't have had to come all this way."

 

Tony didn't reply right away because he didn't know what he could say to convince the boy that he was worth every second of his time.  "You're a good kid.  You know that right?  You always do your best to help out everyone else.  Even when you aren't in your suit.  That's pretty amazing, Pete."

 

Looking towards Tony, Peter, brought his eyebrows together in thought.  "You do the same thing, Mr. Stark.  You help people even when you aren't in your suit..."

 

"If you say so, Kid.", Tony scoffed at the accusation.

 

Peter smiled gently in the man's direction.  "You look out for me.  ...and you didn't have to come today or take me to lunch...", he said in earnest.

 

"Nope.  I wanted to because you're a good kid and I like hanging out with you.", Tony replied honestly before giving the boy a teasing smile, "Besides, you cleared up my schedule for me.  At the very least own you a good lunch." 

 

Thank you, Mr. Stark.", Peter said with every ounce of gratitude he could put into those few words,  hoping to encompass the entirety of everything he was grateful for at the moment.  Tony coming to get him, listening to him, defending him, taking him out to eat... all of it.  

 

"Not a problem, Kid.", Tony uttered softly, smiling to himself as he did so. While this wasn't how he'd set out to spend his afternoon, he wouldn't have it any other way.   

 


End file.
